GEYC participated in the 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Fundamental Rights Platform (FRP), organised by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on 18–19 November 2025. As members of this European civil society network, we joined organisations from across the EU to discuss key developments in the field of fundamental rights, civic space, and democratic resilience.
This year’s meeting was particularly significant, taking place shortly after the European Commission adopted the EU Civil Society Strategy on 12 November 2025, the first-ever comprehensive EU framework aimed at strengthening, supporting, and protecting civil society. During the meeting, Commissioner Michael McGrath underlined that the Strategy rests on three essential pillars: engagement, protection and support.
The EU Civil Society Strategy
The Commission’s adoption of the EU Civil Society Strategy marks a historic moment for civil society organisations across the Union. The Strategy addresses long-standing concerns related to shrinking civic space, threats to human rights defenders, barriers to funding, and underrepresentation of civil society in policy processes.
The Strategy introduces a number of welcome commitments, including:
- the establishment of a European Civil Society Platform to enable structured dialogue,
- improved mechanisms for civil society participation across EU institutions,
- more accessible and sustainable funding opportunities, including core support,
- monitoring and early-warning systems for civic space,
- and enhanced cooperation with philanthropy and independent donors.
These measures respond directly to the collective call made by European civil society in 2024 and represented an important step toward creating a safer, stronger and more enabling environment for CSOs in the EU.
GEYC’s position on the EU Civil Society Strategy
GEYC welcomes and strongly supports the adoption of the EU Civil Society Strategy. The document aligns closely with our organisation’s values and priorities, especially in the areas of youth participation, digital rights, social inclusion, and democratic engagement.
From our perspective, the Strategy brings progress in several key areas:
1. Youth Participation
We appreciate the Strategy’s emphasis on meaningful youth involvement in democratic and civic processes. We also welcome FRA’s launch of a pilot Youth Advisory Panel, which reinforces the need to embed young people’s voices in EU-level human rights work, a mission central to GEYC.
2. Digital Rights and Civic Space
The Strategy acknowledges both the opportunities and the risks present in the digital sphere. Its focus on improving digital governance, safety, transparency and accountability is particularly relevant to GEYC’s long-term work on digital literacy and digital rights.
3. Sustainable & Accessible Funding
We endorse the Strategy’s proposals to simplify access to EU funding, reduce administrative burdens, and introduce more flexible financial support, especially core funding, for civil society organisations of all sizes, including youth-led and community-based initiatives.
4. Protection of Civic Space
GEYC welcomes the Strategy’s commitment to monitoring threats against civil society, supporting human rights defenders, and addressing restrictions on fundamental freedoms across the EU. We encourage EU institutions and Member States to ensure that these commitments are swiftly translated into practice.
GEYC’s engagement during the FRP Annual Meeting
Throughout the two-day meeting, GEYC actively engaged in discussions with EU institutions, civil society leaders, and FRA experts.
Key highlights included:
- the presentation of the EU Civil Society Strategy by Commissioner Michael McGrath,
- a high-level panel featuring representatives from DG JUST, the European Economic and Social Committee, ENAR, the European Civic Forum, and FRA,
- thematic sessions on the challenges and opportunities in civic space,
- and collaborative reflections on FRA’s ongoing and future work.
These exchanges contributed to shaping a shared understanding of how EU institutions, Member States, and civil society can work together to implement the Strategy effectively.
Day 2: Contributing to FRA’s 2026 Priorities and Future Work
The second day of the Annual Meeting (November 19th) focused on the Fundamental Rights Agency’s upcoming priorities and on deepening collaboration with civil society.
The programme included:
- Annual Activity Report & 2026 Outlook
FRA presented the annual activity report on the Fundamental Rights Platform and its plans for 2026, emphasising the importance of continued, structured engagement with civil society actors and evidence-informed policy work.
During the meeting, FRA announced that in 2026 it will launch a publicly searchable online database of all organisations participating in the Fundamental Rights Platform. This new tool will significantly enhance visibility, transparency and cooperation across the network. For GEYC, such a database will be particularly beneficial. It will:
- make it easier to identify and connect with organisations working on similar priorities, such as youth engagement, digital rights, anti-discrimination or social inclusion;
- enable us to build new partnerships for EU-funded projects, research collaborations or advocacy coalitions more efficiently;
- increase GEYC’s visibility at EU level, as our profile, areas of expertise and contact details will be accessible to institutions, researchers and other civil society actors;
- support cross-country cooperation, allowing quicker matchmaking with organisations in specific Member States when joint contributions to consultations, reports or initiatives are needed;
- strengthen the overall cohesion of the civil society ecosystem, making the FRP a more interconnected and active community.
- Presentation of the FRA Fundamental Rights Report 2026
Participants were introduced to the structure and priorities of the Fundamental Rights Report 2026, followed by working group sessions in which civil society organisations provided feedback on the draft thematic chapters. The working groups covered four core topics:
- Digital age: balancing opportunities and threats in governance and accountability, where GEYC contributed perspectives grounded in our long-standing experience in digital literacy, youth digital rights and community engagement.
- Housing crisis and people experiencing homelessness
- Employment challenges and the exploitation of migrants, immigrants and displaced people
- EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
These sessions allowed civil society to bring forward insights from the ground and to influence FRA’s evidence-based work for 2026.
Conclusion after the meeting
GEYC remains committed to supporting the implementation of the EU Civil Society Strategy and to working with FRA and civil society partners to advance fundamental rights, democratic participation, and civic resilience.
Our priorities moving forward include:
- strengthening youth involvement in EU policy processes,
- contributing to FRA’s thematic work on digital rights, anti-discrimination and inclusion,
- advocating for sustainable and accessible funding for CSOs,
- and supporting the protection and expansion of civic space in Romania and across the EU.
We will continue to build partnerships, contribute evidence-based insights, and represent youth perspectives in European dialogues on fundamental rights.